Baseball

PADUCAH, Ky. – Casanova Donaldson bounced a two-out single
through the right side and Chad Oberacker raced home from second
base, beating the throw for the winning run as Tennessee Tech
withstood a furious comeback by Jacksonville State Friday night and
claimed a 13-12 victory in 10 innings in the 2009 Ohio Valley
Conference Baseball Tournament in Brooks Stadium.

The Golden Eagles (29-22-1) advance to the championship game at
3:30 p.m. Saturday in the double-elimination tournament.

“He (Donaldson) has done his job all year long, and the neat
thing about it is that we believe in him so much, and we knew he
was going to get the job done,” said Golden Eagle head coach
Matt Bragga.

Murray State and Jacksonville State tangle at 12 noon for the
right to face Tech. The winner will need to beat the Golden Eagles
twice to claim the title, while one more victory by Bragga’s
team will send Tech to the NCAA Tournament with the league’s
automatic bid.

Playing for the OVC title doesn’t surprise Donaldson, even
after his team got off to a 1-7 start in conference play early in
the year.

“It’s like a roller coaster. It’s great. You
have to stay positive,” Donaldson said. “I believe I
said earlier in the year that we’d come out on top, and
we’re making that happen.”

Bragga was proud of the way his team battled back after nearly
letting the game get away late in the contest.

“It’s been a lot of fun, and I give our guys a whole
lot of credit,” Bragga said. “When you have a four-run
lead in the ninth looking to go 3-0, and they score four, to be
able to come back from that and scratch and claw and get a run,
that’s not easy to do.

“I’ve been playing and coaching this game for a long
time, and I give our guys a while lot of credit for
believing,” he said.

Sophomore A.J. Kirby-Jones was 3-for-5 with a double and two home
runs, tying two records. He tied the school record with 20 home
runs in a season, matching the mark by Jeremy Bonczynski set in
1997. He also tied the OVC record for most home runs in a
tournament.

Junior Lee Henry (9-2) pitched the final 1.1 innings in relief to
record the win, his second of the tournament after working six
innings as the starter Wednesday in Tech’s 9-4 triumph over
Southeast Missouri.

It was a wild contest with a wild finish, at four hours the
longest game in the history of the tournament in Brooks
Stadium.

Tech took a 3-1 lead in the first frame and owned a 9-4 advantage
after five innings. The Golden Eagles appeared in control with a
12-8 advantage heading into the ninth, but the Gamecocks
wouldn’t go quietly.

JSU rallied to tie the game with four runs in the ninth on just
three hits, taking advantage of three walks and a hit batter to set
the fuse for the comeback. The tying run came on a slow roller on
the infield that went for an RBI single and knotted the contest,
12-12.

JSU turned to reliever Bill Henke in the bottom of the ninth and
he set down three straight Golden Eagles to send the contest to
extra innings.

Henry, who got the final out of the JSU ninth, pitched a perfect
10th inning to give his team a chance to win.

Oberacker led off with a bouncing single up the middle to lead off
the inning, but Henke retired the next two batters. Oberacker stole
second, moving the winning run into scoring position, and Donaldson
capped off a brilliant performance with his walk-off single. His
bouncing hit to the right side slipped through the hole and into
right field, and Oberacker wheeled around third and headed for
home.

Right fielder Kyle Bluestein’s throw may have beaten
Oberacker from shallow right, but it was up the line and the speedy
Golden Eagle sophomore slid under catch Andrew Edge with the
winning run.

“Those situations, that’s pretty much what you play
the game for,” Donaldson said. “I dream about that
every day, runner in scoring position and two outs. Oberacker got
it started. He led off and got on, then stole second, and that
makes it the hitter’s job to bring him in and that’s
exactly what I did.”

Donaldson was 3-for-5 with three RBI and a sacrifice fly.
Oberacker also collected three hits, along with Kirby-Jones. Alex
Henry and Ben Burgess each had two hits, with Burgess including a
solo home run in his day’s efforts.

That blast came in the third inning, when Kirby-Jones and Burgess
blasted back-to-back home runs to make it a 5-2 lead.

JSU scored a pair of runs in the fourth to cut the deficit to 5-4
on a two-run home run from Jake Sharrock, but Tech answered with
four in the bottom of the fifth. An RBI bunt single by Donaldson
scored Kirby-Jones with the first run and the second run trotted
home when Tate McMillan walked with the bases loaded.

Freshman Chad Hayes followed with a bases loaded RBI single, and
the final run scored while JSU was turning a double play.

The Gamecocks got three runs in the top of the sixth to make it
9-7, but Tech came back with two more in the bottom of the inning
to make it 11-7. Oberacker ripped a leadoff single and Kirby-Jones
popped his second home run of the game over the fence in right
field.

Each team scored once in the seventh, making it 12-8 heading into
the final frame.

“I give Jax State a whole lot of credit, because they
battled the whole way, too. It’s been fun and we’re
excited to continue playing,” Bragga said.